How to report a problem in relation to commercial premises

Please Note: We cannot respond to anonymous complaints as we need to prove nuisance at the home of the people disturbed by the noise.

The most common enquiries are about disturbance from neighbouring commercial premises, such as loud noises, alarms sounding in the middle of the night, building site noise, noise made by businesses, licensed premises and noise in the street from customers leaving a venue.

For us to take action we need to be sure that the problem is a 'statutory noise nuisance'.

If you are disturbed by a noise/odour/nuisance: In the first instance, we would suggest you approach the premises where the nuisance noise/ odour is coming from. It may be that the Company are not aware they are causing distress and may be able to reassure you they will prevent any further issues.

If you feel that you cannot approach the person or company involved we can contact them on your behalf.

We will ask you to keep a diary of the noisy/nuisance occurrences for approximately two weeks and we may come out and listen to the noise ourselves in order to “witness it” At this point we will also contact the other party/premises/neighbouring property and advise them that a complaint has been made against them and what the complaint is.

We will suggest a solution or compromise to both parties if we consider the noise to be unreasonable.

However, it is possible that we may feel there is no justification for our involvement. In this case, we would offer advice to you, and explain the reasons for our decision, this is because the law relating to business premises is slightly different than domestic premises: they can defend themselves by proving that they are using the "best practicable means" to prevent the noise.

You can report a noisy /nuisance commercial premises by contacting the Commercial Environmental Protection department here.

Domestic Nuisance

Complaints involving domestic nuisance such as loud music, barking dogs, domestic burning of refuse, anti-social behaviour and anything involving domestic, rather than commercial and businesses, would be dealt with by Anti-social Behaviour Officers. see here

The following examples could be considered a domestic noise nuisance:

Music played louder than normal domestic noise in the neighbouring property

D.I.Y. noise at inappropriate time, continual unnecessary improvements, or when it could be carried out in a quieter manner

A dog barking for long periods at anti-social times

What noise problems can't we deal with?

We can't help if a noise complaint is:

Just part of a larger conflict between neighbours who generally do not get on

If you are more sensitive to noise than the average person or

If the problem has long periods between occurrences

Examples of noise nuisance we cannot deal with:

One-off 25th wedding anniversary party

Household noise such as vacuums and washing machines at reasonable hours

Traffic noise from vehicles on the highway

Many 'Noise Nuisance' complaints are in fact merely a small part of a very complex situation, and often relationships between neighbours were strained before any noise incidents.

In such cases you may approach the Magistrates’ Court yourself using Section 82 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990.